Afghanistan vs Bangladesh
June 24, Kingstown, 8:30 p.m. local
Big picture – scrap for the semi-finals
Bangladesh have struggled to put up a fight against Australia and India, and they are known to taper off at the end of long tours. They do, however, have a point to prove before the tournament ends.
Bangladesh LLWWL (Last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Afghanistan WLLWW
In the spotlight – Gulbadin Naib and Shakib Al Hasan
Team news – Bangladesh may bring back Taskin or Shoriful
Bangladesh could go back to Taskin Ahmed or Shoriful Islam to replace Jaker Ali. Afghanistan are likely to go unchanged at the same venue where they beat Australia.
Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tanzid Hasan, 2 Litton Das (wk), 3 Najmul Hosain Shanto (capt), 4 Towhid Hridoy, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Jaker Ali/Taskin Ahmed/Shoriful Islam, 8 Rishad Hossain, 9 Mahedi Hasan, 10 Tanzim Hasan, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
Afghanistan (probable): 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Azmatullah Omarzai, 4 Karim Janat, 5 Rashid Khan (capt), 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Gulbadin Naib, 8 Nangeyalia Kharote, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Naveen- ul -Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi
Teams batting first have won every game at Arnos Vale, including Bangladesh defending 106 against Nepal. Afghanistan will also have a fair measure of pitches after their 21-run win against Australia. The weather, however, may not be good as rain is forecast.
“It’s a nice feeling to have the fact that we’re playing the last match as well. You’ll know exactly what the script is and then what it takes to win. That’s always a nice feeling. But I think with cricket, so many things are thrown away and so much results can go against you or for you. So we have to focus on our match against Bangladesh and when all the other matches are played, we will know what we have to do and the decisions we have to make.”
Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott
“One thing you have to recognize is that you can’t fight genetics. You have to have a genetic predisposition to strength to begin with. But strength is something that takes a long time. If you don’t have the predisposition to be strong.. West Indians don’t have to to find strength. We are not born with strength, so we have to do it differently by looking at different things about how we can do it the Bangladeshi way.”
Assistant coach of Bangladesh Nick Pothas